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About the Book

"... thoughtful tools for helping young people help themselves."—Library Journal

Parenting a teen isn't easy, but parenting an anxious teen is especially challenging. Written by a psychologist and expert on adolescent anxiety, this essential book will show you what really works to overcome all types of teen anxiety and how to apply specific skills to support your teen.

Most parents find it frustrating when common sense and logical methods such as reassurance don’t seem to work to allay their teen’s anxiety. They want to know: Why is anxiety so hard to get rid of once it takes hold? Why aren’t my efforts to help working? And how can I best help my teen break free from anxiety to become happy and resilient?

This powerful book, based on cutting-edge research and cognitive behavioral strategies, will help you develop the know-how to effectively manage teen anxiety. You’ll learn the best ways to support your teen in overcoming problematic thinking and fears, discover what behaviors and coping strategies unwittingly make anxiety worse, and understand how anxiety is best defeated with surprisingly counterintuitive methods. Step-by-step guidance, along with numerous real-life examples and exercises, will help you to:

Sensitively redirect your teen’s worries when they intensify

Reduce social anxiety, perfectionism, and panic attacks

Proactively address common triggers of stress and anxiety

Implement a proven approach for decreasing avoidance and facing fears

From overcoming minor angst to defeating paralyzing fear, you and your teen will feel empowered by radically new ways of responding to anxiety. With Helping Your Anxious Teen, you’ll have a wealth of research-backed strategies to lead you in being an effective anxiety coach for your teen.

Authors

Sheila Achar Josephs, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and anxiety expert with over twenty years of experience helping kids, teens, families, and adults. She is founder of Princeton Cognitive Therapy, a practice specializing in cognitive behavioral... Read more

Books by Sheila Achar Josephs

Praise

“Navigating the teen years is a challenge for many parents. This thoughtful, well-informed, and easy-to-read guide can help you understand how anxiety works, what makes it better, and what makes it worse. With a logical and systematic road map based in scientific research and clinical expertise, you can use effective strategies to support and coach your teen through anxiety, stress, and worry. A must-read!”—Aureen Wagner, PhD, adjunct associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, director at The Anxiety Wellness Center, and author of Worried No More

“A wonderful addition to the self-help literature, Helping Your Anxious Teen details a specific, pragmatic action plan for parents of 13–19 year olds. The delicate balance of supporting teens emotionally without enabling their anxiety is nicely described, as is the way to teach skills without taking over. Worry, perfectionism, panic, and fear—this book covers anxiety in its many forms, bringing hope and, even more to the point, relief to struggling parents and teens.”—Dawn Huebner, PhD, psychologist and author of What to Do When You Worry Too Much

“Helping Your Anxious Teen is an excellent resource for parents searching for thoughtful and effective strategies to effectively parent their anxious teen. The book is filled with useful advice and proven-effective techniques parents can use to guide their anxious teen through a critical time in their development.”—Michael A. Tompkins, PhD, codirector of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy; assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and coauthor of My Anxious Mind

“Sheila Achar Josephs will teach you how to coach your teen to develop the valuable skills that can lead them toward a more flexible—and independent—path into adulthood.” —Reid Wilson, PhD, coauthor of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents

“Helping Your Anxious Teen makes a valuable and impressive contribution by providing a clear, effective, and easy-to-read guide for parents to help their adolescent overcome anxiety. Chapters describe the nature of anxiety, how to understand its presentation, and, perhaps most importantly, how parents can help their teen conquer fear and stress. This book is a must-have for any parent of an anxious teen, as well as for providers who work with this population.”—Eric Storch, PhD, All Children’s Hospital Guild Endowed Chair and Professor at the University of South Florida, and clinical director at Rogers Behavioral Health-Tampa Bay

“Anxiety is a cage that locks teens in, preventing them from fully engaging in life. Sheila Achar Josephs is a master clinician who gives parents the keys to help teens break free of fear-filled suffering and constraints.”—Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, coauthor of Smart Parenting for Smart Kids

“This terrific book puts the time-tested and research-proven strategies of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) into a very readable format that will help you be a more effective coach and cheerleader when it comes to parenting your own anxious or stressed-out teen. You will find the numerous illustrative examples and step-by-step instructions for implementing the techniques extremely helpful. Every parent should read this book!”—Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD, director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Parents, asserts psychologist Josephs, PhD, are crucial to helping their young teens overcome the vicious cycle of worry and fear. Demonstrating how persistent anxiety is a learned response, the author begins by explaining how an anxiety cycle operates (how thoughts and behaviors trigger ramped-up new thoughts and behaviors) and presents common approaches parents take that don’t work, such as jumping in with advice and contributing excessive reassurance. Instead, she encourages Socratic questions that help identify and challenge doubt. From teens who are constantly agitated to those caught in avoidance cycles and others struggling with perfectionism, Josephs looks at these experiences and offers thoughtful tools for helping young people help themselves. VERDICT: Recommended for public library collections." —Library Journal